


Expectations, Reality, a Clashing Totality

by altehst



Series: Age Switch AU [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, First Impressions, First Meetings, Gen, references to violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19428406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altehst/pseuds/altehst
Summary: Tim remembers clearly the first time he met Bruce and each of his brothers. He also remembers when each one of them found out about his age.Set in my AU where the order of Robins stays the same but Tim is the youngest.





	1. Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> Another story in the age switch AU! I'm having fun writing this and I hope you like it!
> 
> I diverged from canon quite a bit on how Tim started being Robin- he still went on his whole training trip after he started, but I skipped over the whole saving-Bruce-and-Dick-from-Two-Face thing. I don't feel like it's that important to the canon in this story tbh.
> 
> Sorry for the long hiatus, I've been busy this month and my original writing project is taking up most of my creativity. I'm not sure if I'll be writing more for this series anytime soon, but we will see.

The first time Tim meets Bruce- not Brucie, who he met at a party one Christmas, or Batman, who he met one night when he was out late and had actually been almost mugged- it's for a job interview. 

_The_ job interview, one might say. 

Tim marches up to the door of Wayne Manor, his hands shaking but his knock firm. Alfred Pennyworth opens the door, and Tim says, "I'd like to speak to Mr. Wayne, please."

Mr. Pennyworth hesitates, as if he's unsure whether or not he's going to let Tim in. Tim barges on before the door can be shut in his face. "I know he's home, because his car is here. Both of them." And then, drawing his trump card, he says, "It's about his night job."

The butler gazes down at him for a long moment, then nods and opens the door wider. They walk in silence to a study with the doors shut. Mr. Pennyworth opens the door, and nods Tim inside. He speaks quietly, his voice kind and stern at the same time. "Say what you need to."

Tim thinks that Mr. Pennyworth understands, then, what he's about to do. He takes a breath, and steps into the study. The man in front of him is not quite what he'd imagined. Bruce is slumped in his chair, a copy of _A Tale of Two Cities_ in front of him, with half the book having a lot of tabs sticking out of it. Also in front of the man is a half-full bottle of whiskey and a glass filled with the amber drink. 

Tim clears his throat, and the full weight of Bruce's gaze falls on him. He says, "Hello, sir, my name is Tim Drake. I'm not sure if you remember me, but we're your neighbors-"

Bruce cuts him off, and, despite the fact that he's obviously been drinking, there's no slur to his words when he says, "I remember you."

Tim refrains from saying "I'm not surprised," and instead moves straight to, "Then I can get to the point."

Despite his words, he hesitates until Bruce raises an eyebrow and says, "Which is?"

Tim takes a breath and says, "Batman needs a Robin."

To his credit, Bruce doesn't even try to refute that statement, or, more importantly, the fact that he is Batman. Instead, he pushes himself away from his desk and comes to loom over Tim, saying, "And you think a ten-year-old is the right person for the job?" 

Tim has a moment of panic, but he reminds himself that there's no reason for Bruce to know, no reason for him to suspect that he's actually only a year off of the mark, and he keeps his face carefully in the same expression it's been in for the whole conversation when he replies, "No, but a fourteen-year-old might be able to help for a while. I'm small for my age, sir."

Bruce studies him for a moment, then says, "I don't suppose I can persuade you to go home."

It's more of a statement than a question, but Tim still answers it. "You can try, sir, but you know I'll just go out on my own, right?" 

Bruce turns from him in dismissal, and Tim knows the conversation is over. He's at the door when Bruce speaks. "You know it'll be hard."

Again, not a question. Again, Tim answers. "Yes."

He thinks of empty houses and empty beds, of broken promises and broken trust. Of coming home after nights out in the rain, in Gotham, of patching himself up and knowing that those who should care, who should stop his more dangerous activities will never find out about them. 

He thinks of realizing he's on his own. Of watching a man become something else in the absence of a light.

Tim thinks of things more important than himself, and he swallows down the terror that clogs his throat.

He says, "I'm not scared," because he's not, not of the work nor the challenges that lie ahead. He's faced worse. He knows what he's really scared of, and it's never been of something like _hard work_.

Bruce replies, his voice low and filled with something dark that drips into the seams of the conversation. "You should be."

* * *

Dick meets him on a normal night, but he's taken aback when the man reacts more esplosively than he had expected. There's quite a bit of shouting, of Dick accusing Bruce of replacing Jason, and it's the first time that Tim hears the name that will cut him to the bone too many times to count over the next few years. 

_Replacement._

Tim and Dick's relationship rapidly gets better, which he's thankful for, but not before Tim acquires a few new bruises courtesy of some mid-level thugs.

* * *

Jason and Tim's first meeting goes horribly. The man attacks Tim, leaves him broken and bleeding on the floor and walks away. All Tim can hear are echoes of Dick's shouts when he had first met the younger boy.

_Replacement._

Tim and Jason- _Jason,_ the real Jason, not one more than half-mad from the pit- meet for the first time a couple years later. Tim's twelve, but Jason doesn't know that, because Bruce never changed that in the files. It means Jason thinks he's fifteen, which Tim knows because of what Jason says as they stare at each other across the roof they've both landed on during patrol. 

Tim eyes the older man carefully, unsure of whether or not he should just run. Jason makes a move before he does, casually straightening from the defensive crouch he's dropped into as he asks, "...Excited to get your driver's license next year?" 

Tim huffs out a laugh, because, "What?"

Jason shrugs, looking a little less uneasy. "I don't know, I remember being super excited about that as a kid."

Tim shrugs, a grin pricking at his lips. "I guess."

Jason leaves after a bit more small talk, but he leaves behind something for Tim- hope for the future.

* * *

Tim and Damian's first meeting goes, if possible, worse than his and Jason's first meeting. Tim's thirteen, thankful that he's growing early and can pass for sixteen, and Damian takes one look at him and takes him down. It's short. It's brutal. It's, if Tim is being honest, extremely humiliating.

However, after that- Damian backs off. Tim doesn't know why, can't figure it out. He knows that Damian wants Robin- and he gets it soon enough- but he knows that Damian also sees him as a threat to Damian's position as heir. He doesn't know why Damian doesn't just finish him off and get it over with. Maybe he's scared that Bruce will reject him if that happens.

Whatever the case, Tim watches him warily, constantly on edge, until Damian saves him on patrol one night. Tim relaxes, then, and finds himself warming up to Damian. 

There's something about the other boy, though, that makes Tim nervous. Not in a threatened way, but when Damian looks at Tim like his eyes are piercing through him to find his deepest secret, Tim can't help but feel that Damian knows _something._

But that's crazy.

Isn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you thought!
> 
> A fuller, more detailed story of Dick and Tim's first meeting can be found in my story "Placed on a Pedestal."
> 
> also: this draft was literally getting deleted by ao3 tomorrow so that tells you how long ago I started it...


	2. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was way shorter than i thought it was sorry

Bruce and Dick find out his real age at the same time almost a year into Tim's run as Robin, when Tim's hit by something from Ivy, something that makes him want to keep talking about anything and everything. Dick claps a hand over the younger boy's mouth until they're in the Batmobile, and then Tim tries not to ask too many questions about what they think it is, what's going on with him, is he going to be okay-

They're in the Cave when Dick, desperate to keep Tim from distracting Bruce from finding the correct-level antidote for the youngest, asks, "What've you got planned for your birthday, Tim?"

Tim shrugs as he answers, mouth moving a mile a minute. "Not too much, my parents said they might be home but I think they'll forget again, but maybe next year they'll remember since I'm turning thirteen then, but this year it's only going to be twelve and-"

Tim's cut off by the sound of a crash. Both Tim and Dick look over to see that Bruce has dropped the antidote and has turned to pin Tim with a glare. " _What_ did you just say," he asks, except it's not really a question. 

Tim's cut off by Dick, who went and grabbed another of the antidote when it became clear that Bruce wasn't going to bring one over. The older boy injects it in Tim's arm, and Tim goes oddly still as he answers, the antidote working almost immediately to clear his mind. "Uh, well, you weren't exactly supposed to... find that out."

It comes out, then, how Tim had seen that Batman- Bruce- needed a Robin, and if Dick wasn't going to come back then he would have to do it, how Tim had made the necessary preparations, putting into play plans that he had made as soon as Jason had died and Bruce started behaving erratically.

How Tim forged the papers or got people to do it for him, how he hacked records and even the government to edit his information and how he covered it up so deeply that Bruce wouldn't be able to find something unless he knew what he was looking for, ("I had a lot of free time in the summer, and school wasn't that hard during the school year, so," Tim says as he stares at the wall just above Bruce's shoulder). 

Tim's a little proud, actually, that he managed to keep it hidden from Bruce for this long, but he thinks that the older man wouldn't appreciate the sentiment. 

Bruce doesn't talk to him for two days, then sits him down and explains that he's not mad, exactly, but Tim should've come to him sooner with this. That eleven was too young to be on the streets seeing what they see (Tim doesn't point out that Jason and Dick were twelve, that those fighting a war do not always choose the ages of the soldiers, that they are all too young for this and yet they have chosen it. He does not talk about how he knew what he was doing when he joined up, more than Dick or Jason did). Bruce hesitates, then says, "I'm not going to restrict what you can do. I don't think that'll help, and you've proven yourself."

Tim takes it as a good sign, and, maybe, a little bit that Bruce is at least a little impressed with what he's done, what he was able to do. He doesn't even argue when Bruce keeps him away from the worst cases more often than he used to for a few months.

Dick smothers him for two weeks, then slowly returns to normal levels of big brothering. He and Bruce do seem to make an effort to keep their more-and-more infrequent fights in spaces away from him, though, and Tim would be lying if he said that that wasn't a relief. He has too many memories of screaming matches in his own home, of angry words and angrier actions that sometimes bleed over onto him. Of empty beds and empty houses.

* * *

Jason finds out about his age on a mundane night, when he gives Tim some cold medicine. According to Tim's birth certificate- the one on file, anyway, Tim's seventeen, close to eighteen. His luck's held out, and he finished growing early. He's small, like his mother, but with a bit of makeup he can still pass for someone three years older than him. 

Jason's just handed Tim the medicine, the younger boy collapsed on the couch with the killer cold that's taken down half the family in the last month and that finally caught up with him when he almost collapsed on patrol tonight, when Tim's distracted by his communicator beeping. As he listens to Bruce's questions about his health- and Jason's abrupt answers, Tim drains the little cup with the liquid in it without thinking. 

As soon as he does, he remembers why, exactly, he avoids this brand of cold medicine. There's something in it that makes him horribly loose-lipped and loopy, and every time he's used it, Dick ends up with more blackmail. Last time even Damian got something.

A half-hour later, he's chattering to Jason about anything and everything as the older boy nods his head from time to time and grunts in acknowledgement every once in a while. Tim spots a picture of a car on Jason's laptop, and his thoughts suddenly spiral in a new direction. "Hey," he says, poking Jason in the thigh with his foot. "You know what's funny?"

Jason grunts. Tim takes this as a "No, what?" type of grunt, so he answers. "I've had my license for like a year, right? But I really shouldn't be able to get it for like a year and a half but the government doesn't know that."

For some reason, this is totally hilarious to him, but as he grins at Jason, Jason gets a funny look on his face as he turns to Tim. "Why shouldn't you be able to get it for a while?"

Tim shrugs. "I don't think they normally let fourteen-year-olds get their license, right?"

Jason closes the laptop. His funny look has graduated into one that Tim legitimately cannot read, but that might partially be the cold medicine. "Kid, are you saying you're fourteen?"

Tim nods. "Yeah. Bruce was, like, super mad when he found out I was like three years younger than I said I was. I think I got grounded a little bit." He suddenly sits up from where he's been slouching back on the couch against the armrest. "Jason, do you- do you think the government would ground me from my license if they found out?"

Jason looks at him, the weird look back on his face. Then he huffs out a short laugh, pats Tim's leg, and says, "It'll be okay, kid. Just lay back down."

Tim decides that Jason wouldn't let the government ground him from his license. They've come pretty far from their first meeting. His eyes slip closed.

In the middle of the night, Tim is disturbed by voices in the living room, one talking fast and low and angry, the other deeper and more steady. He's too tired to be bother by it, though, so he rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Tim wakes up the next morning without much memory of the night before past when he took the cold medicine. He's lying in one of the bedrooms underneath the covers, wearing the pajamas he'd changed into the night before when he and Jason arrived at the safe house after patrol. Tiredly, he pads into the kitchen, only to see Jason sitting at the table, studying something on his tablet. 

Tim lifts a hand in greeting, and Jason looks up at him, a lazy smile crawling across his face. "You slept for a while."

Tim shrugs as he pokes his head into the fridge. Jason says, and Tim can _hear_ the smug grin, "Then again, I guess fourteen-year-olds need their sleep."

Tim slams the fridge door closed and spins around to see Jason with his hands tucked behind his head. Tim groans. He wasn't trying to hid it, exactly, but his real age isn't something he advertises. Jason's smile grows. "Cold medicine certainly makes you talkative."

Tim groans again. It's going to be a long morning.

* * *

Damian finds out about Tim's real age long before he meets Tim. His mother presents him with a dossier on the Pretender, with documents hidden so deep in the internet it had taken the League's most talented hackers months to find them. He studies the file, determined to take in every weakness of this boy who had dared take Damian's place by his father's side. 

When he reaches the part about his age, he raises an eyebrow. This child has an audacity that pleases Damian. He will be a worthy opponent. 

Damian stands. He is ready to defeat the Pretender and take his rightful place as Robin.


End file.
